Going Lean: 10 Ways Your Inbound Agency Can Strive for Excellence

    Posted by John McTigue on Nov 14, 2012 8:59:00 PM

    strive for excellence

    To create successful inbound marketing campaigns, it's important to create processes to ensure that multiple lead nurturing efforts can be launched in the most efficient way. Furthermore, it's crucial to embrace continuous improvement so these campaigns bring in the greatest number of sales qualified leads possible. These practices help make your marketing agency, or any company, run more efficiently while attracting more clients and more talent.

    As we continue to implement these standards and practices, we wondered what some specific things we—and you— could do to enhance these processes on a daily basis. First, let's identify some simple goals your team can rally around to make your shop a better place to work.

    Goals to Help Us Strive for Excellence on a Daily Basis

    • Our team and clients understand what we are saying
    • We can clearly see the relationship between effort and success
    • Every day we seem to be getting better at what we do
    • We see ourselves as winners, and our customers do too
    • When we have problems, we fix them right away and move on

    Here, we brainstorm easy steps each of us can take to achieve these goals:

    1. Resist the temptation to speak right away when asked a question. Think about your response and how to say it clearly.
    2. Create a plan, just a simple to-do list, for every day. Execute the plan and review your progress before you go home. Then create tomorrow's plan.
    3. When you run into a roadblock, add a to-do item to your list to solve it. You don't necessarily have to drop what you're doing now. Just commit to solving it later.
    4. Prioritize your to-do list, and don't let things slide more than a day or two at the most.
    5. Discuss your challenges and successes with your peers and bosses. Ask for their opinions and recommendations.
    6. Set aside time every day during work to think. Yes, think. Take your most challenging to-do item and go somewhere quiet and think. Let your work neighbor know that's what you're doing in case you're needed. Let your boss know that's what you want to do and negotiate a reasonable amount of time.
    7. Identify what's holding you back from becoming a genuine rockstar at your job. Talk to your peers and your boss about it and figure out a plan to get there. Work those steps into your daily plan.
    8. Blur the lines between work and play. If your job is challenging and rewarding, both personally and professionally, why worry about how much time you spend on each part? When work is stressful, play hard to balance it. When work is awesome, celebrate with your teammates.
    9. Own something. Strive to be a leader in your project, your field, your social network, your company. Leadership is hard to find and even harder to teach. You know what it means to be a leader, you just have remember to be one every day.
    10. Write a couple of blog posts every week. Your company definitely needs your help, so you'll make an immediate impact. The big benefit is personal. Expressing your ideas, getting published and getting feedback from outsiders is one of the most rewarding things you can do—and it's out there, on the record for everyone to see. Pretty cool.

    Make Your Own Top 10 List

    We wanted to let you know that continuous improvement isn't necessarily an organizational thing, nor is it simply a formula with statistical measurements. It starts with our own daily habits and attitudes. By working on just a few things each day, we can improve ourselves and be better team members, and those things have a profound impact on success at every level.

    LeanDigital Large4

    About the Author: John McTigue is the Executive Vice President and Co-Owner of Kuno Creative, an industry-leading inbound marketing agency and certified Gold HubSpot partner.

    photo credit: Pompeychuck

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    Topics: john mctigue, lean strategies, lead nurturing, inbound marketing, kuno creative

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